Another Iowa Inquiry Sought

November 04, 1989|By ROBERT BECKER Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — Charging that the Navy has "expended its credibility," an Ohio senator has asked for a review of the Navy's claim that a vindictive sailor and his detonator caused the April explosions that killed 47 men aboard the USS Iowa.

Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum has asked Congress' General Accounting Office to determine the accuracy of scientific findings the Navy used to support its theory that deceased gunner's mate Clayton Hartwig caused the blasts.

"The fact of the matter is, the evidence is not conclusive," Metzenbaum wrote. "The technical reports and public statements issued by the Navy over the past five months indicate clearly that the cause of the explosion is still unknown."

The General Accounting Office inquiry requested by Metzenbaum is the fourth probe intiated by Congress into the explosion since the Navy released its findings on Sept. 7.

Numerous newspaper and television reports have also attacked the Navy's findings. CBS TV's "60 Minutes" program is scheduled to air a segment Sunday exploring questions about the Navy's investigation of the Iowa; ABC's "20-20" show devoted part of its Friday program to the Iowa but broke no new ground.

Still, the Navy has not retreated from its findings that the "preponderance of the evidence" points to an act of sabotage by Hartwig, a 24-year-old gunner's mate from Cleveland, Ohio.

Much of the Navy's evidence against Harwtig relies on sophisticated tests on a soft band of copper taken from the 16-inch gun in turret No. 2 of the Iowa - the gun where the explosions began on April 19.

The band sat behind the 2,700-pound projectile that was to be fired that day; when the gun is fired, heat expands the copper band to create a seal in the barrel so that all of the force of the explosives are trapped behind the projectile.

The copper band was wedged in the barrel of the gun until it was removed several days after the explosions. According to the official Navy report, Navy technicians at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard examined the band and found traces of aluminum, silicon, calcium, barium and iron wire - elements not found in either the powder or projectile.

The Navy then conducted another set of tests - this time at Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Va. - in which they loaded a shell and copper band into a test gun and caused five bags of powder to explode by use of a "timer controlled explosive device."

A comparison of the two copper bands - the one from the test and the one from the Iowa - revealed traces of some of the same foreign elements, the Navy says. Navy officials concluded that some sort of detonating device was responsible for the explosion that took the sailors' lives.

Metzenbaum attacked the Navy's findings. He cited an analysis by the FBI that said it could not draw the same conclusions as the Navy.

Metzenbaum also points out that the "Navy has used evidence obtained from these tests to support no less that three different conclusions about the alleged detonation device."

Metzenbaum said reports by the Naval Sea Systems Command in June and August first eliminated a pressure-activated detonator as a possibility and then settled on a detonator that included batteries, a timer and a primer.

He said all that was thrown out on Oct. 12 when Capt. Joseph Miceli, who headed the team of Navy technical experts investigating the blast, said that a pressure-sensitive chemical bomb placed by Hartwig was the likely cause of the explosion.

The Navy has since said the statement was Miceli's personal opinion, not an offical finding.

Metzenbaum said he wants the GAO to supervise and check all further testing of the copper rotating band and any further Navy tests related to the Iowa.